Psychology of Nature

“We are children of our landscape,” wrote novelist Lawrence Durrell. Much of Gary’s writing and speaking explores this provocative idea: from his having followed so-called “at-risk” teens through two months of compassionate wilderness therapy for Shouting at the Sky, to the story of his own wilderness-based grief recovery after the death of his wife, in The Carry Home. Storytellers, Gary reminds us, have long claimed that nature offers us three things needed to live well in the world: beauty, community, and mystery. When a culture stays connected to those qualities, its people are generally content. Let it lose touch with those qualities, however, and a fearful unease can rule the day.